Monday, January 07, 2008

Motorcycle bomb wounds 2

FAR SOUTH / MEDIA, DAILY VIOLENCE

Motorcycle bomb wounds 2

Two women were slightly injured when a bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded at a fresh market in downtown Narathiwat yesterday. A teenager parked the motorbike in front of a pork stall at the Bang Nak market in the municipality and then left on another motorcycle.

Minutes later the parked motorcycle blew up while a crowd of over 100, including security officials, was shopping there, said police.

Flying shrapnel from the explosion injured Lienhong Chotkan, 43, and Maduerawadee Areef, 23. Both were later released from Narathiwat Rachanakarin Hospital after treatment for minor wounds. Police said the motorcycle was mounted with a remote-controlled bomb and registered in the name of Phitsanu Sosuwanwong, a resident of Sungai Kolok district.

In Rueso district, Buddhists have abandoned a village after 25 houses were recently attacked and heavily damaged by members of a gang, suspected to be Muslim insurgents. The owners of the smashed houses in Ban Ba Leh filed a complaint with soldiers at the 39th task force in Rueso district yesterday.

After inspecting the damage, local authorities said the raiders smashed all the doors, walls and floor tiles of the houses before making off with the valuables. Everything was destroyed. Not even the fruit trees were spared.

Owners of the damaged houses and the other 50 Buddhists living in the village decided that it would be best if they left the village and rented houses in the municipality area of Rueso for their own safety.

In Yarang district of Pattani, a scrap merchant from Bangkok was shot dead at a local junkyard on the Pattani-Yala road yesterday.

The 54-year-old victim, identified as Charas Sunthornthaworn from Sai Mai district of Bangkok, was shot at the house-cum-scrapyard of Patama Wani in Ban Rong Krabuang. The gunmen fled after the shooting.